Direct3D 10/11 Is Now Natively Implemented On Linux!

[BlackStar]

So you don't know the difference between what an ICD provides and what DDI provides. It originally tied back into how microsoft wanted to make it more difficult to implement OpenGL on windows.
Microsoft are allowed to do this of course, but it in no way shows which API is better.

COME ON, man, libGL works the same way on Linux. Must you always see conspiracy theories everywhere?

[V!NCENT]

HOW INTERESTING

If you go to detailed statistics for that add-on, you'll find:

a) The average daily users currently amounts to about 400,000
b) The breakdown by OS for Sep. 2010 shows:

WINNT: 6,945,962
Darwin: 1,209,132
Linux: 1,182,127


This further convinces me that the effect of changing the user-agent string in browser statistics is absolutely minimal.

The problem has long been fixed on Microsofts behalf and thus the use agent switcher is no longer needed, so indeed no surprise

[mirv]

ICD stands for Installable Client Driver. Which makes your statement an oxymoron.

So you don't know the difference between what an ICD provides and what DDI provides. It originally tied back into how microsoft wanted to make it more difficult to implement OpenGL on windows.
Microsoft are allowed to do this of course, but it in no way shows which API is better.

[kazetsukai]

- you can use OpenGL on Aero just fine

False, only through special implementations. Aero 'shuts off' for half the legacy applications out there, and in some cases, OpenGL.

Don't see that in Compiz.

[kazetsukai]

Microsoft reached a position of leadership by consistently outmaneuvering, outsmarting and outprogramming their competitors. Say what you will but you don't reach 90%+ market share without merit.

They reached it through underhanded deals and by selling software they didn't even have at the time. And they strongarmed their way into the 90%+ desktop share.

They're terrified of Linux in alot of ways- its the only software stack enroaching on all of their markets simultaneously. Linux competition is so fierce that they have to fight not just for a companies as a whole- they have to undertake the impossible task of trying to force it out of the different departments of their own customers. Even the majority of Windows-only IT shops have a Linux box sitting around doing a task of one nature or another.

To stop this competition they have not only given away product, they've subsidized projects that would otherwise involve free software like Linux, and forced their biggest OEMs by offering heavy price reductions on their OS to manufacturers who sell their products exclusively. They have a team dedicated to 'outbreaks' of non-Microsoft products in the OS space, and have specific escalation guidelines for Free Software. At the point of these escalations, they're no longer selling software, they're forcing it on organizations by making deals impossible for other companies to make. This isn't a normal, fair, or sustainable business model, and it will eventually fail.

Microsoft doesn't have the massive software library they have today because they wrote it all, they have it because they bought it all, just like they essentially bought their current userbase. And that userbase is all that's sustaining them.

[BlackStar]

Its been a while since I've heard an oxymoron of that magnitude. Leadership? Their desktop share is the only thing keeping them in the game, as usual. Not, the quality of their software.

You live in an interesting world.

Microsoft reached a position of leadership by consistently outmaneuvering, outsmarting and outprogramming their competitors. Say what you will but you don't reach 90%+ market share without merit. They, too, used to be the underdog in the past, you know.

It is only now that they are starting to face some serious competition again.

[BlackStar]

You need device drivers for D3D, but they're not the same as an ICD.

ICD stands for Installable Client Driver. Which makes your statement an oxymoron.

[mirv]

Of course you need special ICDs for D3D, ever heard of the DDI interface for D3D drivers? Where do you get this stuff from, anyway?

You need device drivers for D3D, but they're not the same as an ICD.

[kazetsukai]

They cannot break the spec without alienating their developer base.

Which they do with almost every iteration of their software, although they've cut back on that since their competition is much less idle now on interop.

And what do browsers have to do with 3d APIs? Oh, right, NOTHING.

Its an example of their bad policy and tendency to slow the industry down, just like Intel.

3d technology has become stronger than ever under Microsoft's leadership.

Its been a while since I've heard an oxymoron of that magnitude. Leadership? Their desktop share is the only thing keeping them in the game, as usual. Not, the quality of their software.

[pingufunkybeat]

They cannot break the spec without alienating their developer base.

They control the spec AND the reference implementation -- the only one that is of any relevance.

As soon as D3D gains any traction outside of Windows, they can add subtle changes to the (closed-source) implementation which are not covered by the spec, and the Linux developers will be playing catchup, just like WINE guys, SAMBA guys, MS Office guys, Webkit/Gecko guys... The whole world is playing catchup with Microsoft's undocumented bugs and "features". And most developers don't give a crap, because they are only interested in Windows. And it works in Windows.

Exactly the same thing will happen with D3D. You'll get a new version with a spec that leaves room for interpretation, and the reference implementation will be what everybody targets and develops for. Good luck reverse-engineering that.